Middle school reduces its carbon footprint

At Basalt Middle School, a 7.1-kilowatt photovoltaic array has been placed on the south façade of the school. Just last week, an interactive monitor was placed in the hallway of the school that allows students to view the output of the array and electricity use at the school and at other locations in the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond. This is a wonderful educational tool for the students.

On behalf of Basalt’s Green Team, we would like to thank everyone who made this system possible. Financial contributions came from the Aspen Skiing Co. Employee Environmental Fund, Eagle County ECO-Grant, CORE, the town of Basalt through the Green Team, the Thrift Shop of Aspen, the Holy Cross rebate program and the initial CAST (Colorado Association of Ski Towns) grant. Basalt won the CAST grant of $10,000 by being the community that used the most reusable bags in its grocery stores.

We also want to thank those who contributed time, effort and support during this project. Jeremy Voss, the principal at BMS, was unwavering in his support. Other Roaring Fork School District help came from Shannon Pelland, Judy Haptonstall and Ken Newton. SOL Energy provided array-installation services, and CLEER (Charley Haupt, Keith Ulibarri and Mike Ogburn) worked to get the monitoring system accomplished.

Once again, thank you for helping to get a system that will be an ongoing educational benefit to our young and that will reduce the carbon footprint of the middle school.